Posted on 06/25/2004 8:56:12 AM PDT by Baraboo Law Jr.
BERLIN
A genetic mutation made a Berlin 5-year-old extra strong, but the German doctor who has been studying the boy since just after his birth says he's just a regular child.
The boy doesn't stand out among his peers on the playground, but when he puts his mind to it, he can perform unusual feats of strength, said Dr. Markus Schuelke.
"He's a normal boy - you don't see it, you wouldn't recognize him" out of a crowd, Schuelke said. "He can just lift heavy things."
Schuelke started studying the super-strong boy after he was brought to Berlin's Charite hospital shortly after birth because he was twitching.
That turned out to be nothing, but Schuelke, a pediatric neurologist, found that even though the boy was well within normal birth weight, he was particularly muscular.
Schuelke began conducting tests and found over the course of five years that the boy had a genetic mutation that increases muscle growth.
It is the first human case where a mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth, though researchers discovered in 1997 that they could create mega-mice by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce the protein.
Schuelke, who worked with researchers from the United States, wrote about the case in yesterday's New England Journal of Medicine, where he said that the discovery could possibly help in the fight against muscle diseases, such as muscular dystrophy.
The boy, whose name Schuelke has promised not to divulge, has muscles twice the size of other children his age and half their body fat.
He was born to a muscular mother, a former sprinter. Her brother and three other relatives were also very strong - one a construction worker with a talent for hefting curbstones.
Schuelke said that scientists have no way to tell how common the boy's ability is or if a legion of super-strong tykes will be discovered now that researchers have learned what to look for.
"How should we know?" he said. "We have the first case so far."
France immediately sued for peace.
The title of this article is a fabrication.
There is no "mutant" DNA.
The child is homozygous for a recessive trait that both his parents carried.
Junk reporting.
Is he going to run for Governor of Kali yet?
This mutant is not alone. There is also a Russian girl with X-Ray vision! I heard some guy (Professor Xavier, I think his name was) talking about it on the radio...
I wonder what the longterm effects of this will be on the child?
The first X-Man?
Chicks, lots of chicks.
How extensive is her ability?
Can she find oil?
Congestive heart failure is a possiblity according to the AMA article. They really don't know.
If they know which protein he is missing, could they not initiate a treatment?
Maybe. That's what research is all about.
I thought German mutants were blue and teleported in a cloud of smoke?
Come to think of it, that seems to be a problem with ALL German males nowadays.
A seven-month old baby with a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth is seen in an undated black and white image released by the New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites) on Wednesday June 23, 2004. The discovery, reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, represents the first documented human case of such a mutation. The boy's mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin that limits muscle growth. (AP Photo/New England Journal of Medicine, HO)
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